So you were struggling with your weight for as long as you can remember. Finally, you had the willpower to go to the gym and control your food intake, and you actually managed to do both perfectly. You've been losing pound after pound week after week or even month after month, and then all of a sudden, zero. Your countdown to your ideal weight stops, and you're left in the cold wondering, whatever happened?

That point at which your body no longer sheds off the pounds no matter how you try to make it is known as a plateau. There are many ways to get past a plateau, but before you start researching on that, you have to understand why you weight plateaus in the first place. When you know the reason, you just have to look at one sample plateau-busting program and you'll figure out a way to do it by yourself.

First off, plateaus are due to the body getting used to the new conditions you've set it in. Before you decided to lose weight, you were eating a lot and almost never physically active. When you started to watch your diet and go to the gym, you also began consuming less calories and losing more calories than before. Weight loss is body's knee-jerk reaction to this sudden change - decreased caloric input (by watching your diet) and increased caloric output (by working out). As we know, weight loss all about calories. As long as you burn more than you eat, then you should be fine. You should continue losing weight.

We go back to the problem of plateauing. Why do we plateau? As we mentioned, your weight loss was your body's instantaneous reaction to your new habit of consuming less calories and burning more. After a while, this sudden reaction no longer becomes very new to your body. Your body has actually gotten used to the new calorie dynamics you introduced to it earlier when you decided to lose weight. That means, even if you keep watching your diet or you keep going to the gym, your body is going to interpret everything as normal now. There will be no knee-jerk reaction because there is no need for it. Your body is accustomed to it. It is now your "new normal." Everything is in equilibrium.

So will you ever get past a plateau? Truth is, yes, but it's going to take a lot of patience and perseverance. Some people never break this stage until after a month, but the idea is to "shock" your body once again so it begins to lose weight as a knee-jerk reaction. How do you shock your body? There are many ways. Change your workout routine, for example. Aim for higher intensity. Reduce your intake even more. As long as you don't consume less than your normal daily caloric requirements, this approach will be fine. And it will sure work.

At the end of the day, you'd like to consult a professional to teach you exactly how to get past your plateau. But as we mentioned, you have to understand why a plateau even happens before you can make any program work for you. Take a look at this link http://www.ehow.com/how_4723783_lose-weight-quickly.html for more information.